The days following his encounter with Shinji leave him angry and restless. His sleep is plagued with vague nightmares, and he ends up skipping his morning runs to recuperate. His dorm hours are filled with intense training in his room, anything to power through the uneasiness. Hopefully, exhausting himself will let him fall into a blank oblivion at night, but it hardly works. Even Mitsuru is starting to notice, casting him some pointed stares when he comes and goes, even trying to feel his face for a bout of fever one morning.
He hasn't been avoiding her, not really, but she's busy hovering everywhere all at once, arm in arm with the girls or the boys and he figures it's good for team building.
The class bell rings, signaling the end of the day. He's been powering through most of his schoolwork at his desk before going downstairs to the boxing club, classmate chatter completely forgotten until some names he's familiar with crop up in the nearby conversation.
"Did you hear? Apparently, every time Arisato works at Chagall, she slips him free coffees. Who would have thought the hot transfer student would be dating Iori of all guys?"
What?
He drops his pencil on the floor, bends down from his chair to pick it up and almost fumbles it.
"Are you really surprised? They're always eating lunch together, even her brother seems to approve."
"I guess he has some hidden talent, to snatch her up like that. I heard she's really into video games, she's been spotted at the arcade at night with her twin. Maybe that's how he did it."
He tries desperately to reread the assignment so he can just wrap up his paperwork, but after a few minutes, Akihiko gives up in frustration, packs his bag and leaves for club, scowling. A familiar itch is numbing his fingers, he needs to ground them in something, and soon.
If his fellow boxers are more subdued than usual today while watching their captain, it must be because of the crappy weather. It has absolutely nothing to do with the applied ferocity with which he pummels the equipment, striking with his gloves in a staccato to drown out the memory of Shinjiro's taunt, the undercurrent from his neck up his wrists making his arms numb.
Figure it out Aki.
Absolutely nothing to do with it. At least he finally collapses into welcome darkness on his bed, too exhausted to dream.
Finally refreshed and empty-headed on Friday, he catches himself yet again hovering near her classroom at lunch. Lost in thought, he mumbles something incoherent when she approaches him, suddenly too flustered to power through his confusion. Minako has a strange expression on her face that he only ever saw when one of them is badly injured in Tartarus.
"…Nevermind, it's just…"
How do you even ask something like that? Of course, Iori chooses this exact moment to poke his head through the open class doors, quizzically wondering why the corridor is filled with excited girls.
Grumbling at the sight of his junior, he flees the other way.
Once the end of day bell rings, he comes face to face with her as he tries to direct his steps to the back staircase, his usual escape route. She's nonchalantly standing, bag in hand and shoulder on the wall, a foot dangling back and forth above the steps. Her head turns to him, rubies alight with some determination.
"Senpai, want to walk home together?"
There is a firm challenge in her gaze that dares him to spring her trap, but she is smiling sweetly and he probably misinterpreted.
"Sure, let's go."
It's the only words he utters for the next hour.
They take the longer scenic route back to the dorm. That is, she does, and he follows in silence. Maybe she tried to initiate conversations at multiple points, but his inner buzzing is drowning everything, and he clenches his knuckles periodically to distract his brain.
Apparently, they are already at the entrance of the dorm when he feels a soft touch on his arm, tentative.
"Are you feeling sick?" The inquiry has palpable worry in it as to make him jerk right out of his scrambled thoughts.
"Huh…?"
He blinks, looks around, has she been walking with him for so long already?
"… Oh, right. Sorry."
He turns away, runs a hand through the back of his head, trying to disconnect whatever is crawling up his spine.
"Look, if you don't want to tell me, then you don't have to. It's just…"
He breathes in from his nose.
"Is it true you're going out with Junpei?"
The words leave his mouth and an inner voice that sounds eerily like Agaraki berates him.
Dumbass.
"He's just a friend."
"I see…"
The reply is out before he registers the actual content of her answer, he's not getting any better at this. She will definitely think he is odd now, so he scrambles for some sort of excuse to disengage.
"Oh, no, it was just a rumor I heard. Sorry."
Minako nods absently.
"Don't get the wrong idea senpai."
"I-I see. Anyway, I'm sorry. It's bad enough that I listened to a rumor, but then I confronted you about it… It was incredibly rude of me. If I hear anyone say that again, I'll tell them it's not true."
She smiles at him, speaking softly.
"You don't have to do that."
He hates rumors, but he supposes that if it concerns her, she has the right to decide.
"Is that so? Well, maybe it's best to avoid giving them any credibility by trying to deny them."
That somehow shuts the door on his predicament, but her quiet mood remains, and it feels like his fault. Far from him to smother her good mood with his antics.
"Umm.. Should we go get something on our way home?"
Way to go dummy, you're already here.
"Um… Do you want anything to eat?"
She lights up with her usual inner fire at the mention of food all of a sudden.
"Oooh, something spicy!"
He laughs and instantly relaxes, those outbursts of hers are something else.
"Yeah… That might be nice for a change."